Results are in and its been a quick week.

Time has flown since the blood test was carried out on Tuesday along with the scan… I wasn’t expecting the results to come in until next week, but I received a letter in the post yesterday to tell us our chance of having another baby with Down’s syndrome is 1 in 1100. I don’t know what I was expecting to feel when I got the results through, but I am surprised to find I feel nothing at all. I just stared at the letter, read it a few times and filed it. I never got a letter for Seren, we just got a phonecall to tell us we were 1 in 110. For Ava, I got a letter to tell us we were 1 in 800. It’s strange that this combined nuchal/bloods done at 12 weeks is the most accurate screen and that they have taken into account that I have Seren and yet it has come back as the least chance of having a baby with DS out of all 3 pregnancies. The screens I had with Ava and Seren were not the same as this one – I had the Triple Test with them which is just the bloods at 16 weeks. Its not as accurate as the combined bloods/nuchal. I have said from the outset that I don’t feel as though this baby has Down’s syndrome; either way I am looking forward to meeting him/her and the next 6 months can’t go fast enough! I forgot to ask for a scan picture on Tuesday and I am gutted. I was just so grateful to see the baby and the little heartbeat that the importance of the picture went out of my mind. I will definitely get one on the 18th when I go for my 16 week scan though. I need one or else this baby will feel really left out! I have 12 week scan pictures for both Ava and Seren.

We told Ava on Friday morning that there was a baby in my tummy. We had intended to leave it until after the 20 week scan because the passage of time for a 3 year old is such that the concept of 6 months is totally out of her realms of understanding. The problem was that family and friends were all talking about it and we wanted her to hear it from us. She was delighted! She has been asking for another baby and is excited that we are going to have another one. We asked her if she would like another sister or a brother this time and she said a brother. She is convinced its a boy. I am thinking it will be another girl – someone told me if you have 2 of one sex already, you have an 80% chance of having the same sex again. I am more than happy to fill my house with lovely girls!! I daresay Matt is going to feel slightly outnumbered though… We have decided not to find out the sex of this baby until its born; it will probably be our last baby so we’re looking forward to the surprise.

We received Seren’s first pair of shoes this week! When I first learned that Seren might need “special shoes” my heart sank. I had images of clompy black thinks that scream “special needs” so imagine my delight when I saw these gorgeous little things!!

She looks so cute in them. They are a bit of a hinderance to her crawling at the minute, she has to get used to the weight of them on her feet. She is also struggeling to pull herself up with them on because of the size of them but I am sure she will get the hang of them soon enough. I will take a picture of her wearing them soon. My trusted little camera is on the blink so I have asked my wonderful husband if we could invest in our first SLR. I think he is coming round to the idea, so I am going to spend some time researching to see which is the best “beginners” model.

For those of you not in the UK who might not know this, we are having a freak heatwave. Yesterday I had to dig out some summer clothes to face the 28C heat. The girls were in such a good mood and enjoyed some time in the garden before we headed down to Bournemouth for a 3rd birthday party.

Ava thinks Seren is hilarious and laughs at her all day long. Seren is a mischevious little girl and was trying to grab the camera from me when I was taking this picture. Although Ava has bits of cereal bar in between her teeth, I love capturing her little face in full giggle. There’s no better sound than hearing my girls playing together and more importantly, laughing together. I wonder when the sibling rivalry will start and they go from laughing together to tearing strips out of eachother?! Seren finally got what she wanted from the pull-mummys-camera game… a full face picture!!

Seren’s favourite pass time in the garden is the swing – she LOVES swings and could easily stay in one for an hour! She has a really funny little giggle so it cracks me up to push her back and forth for as long as she wants.

We are using Makaton with Seren. Having Down’s syndrome means that Seren is a visual learner, and will have delayed speech. We are keen for Seren to be able to communicate with us in the interim before her speech kicks in, so we reinforce our spoken language with some simple signs. Every time we say the words eat, more, sleep, banana, drink, milk, duck, bird etc we use the sign too. The idea is that Seren will be able to sign these words back to us eventually, and then when her speech kicks in she will drop the signs in favour of the spoken word. So far, she is signing milk, duck and bird. All 3 signs are pretty similar and she does them all in the same way, but I am able to decipher what she means in the context of when she does them. When I plonked her on our garden table to take her photo, a noisy flock of birds flew overhead – immediately she looked up and did her interpretation of the “bird” sign. I was so chuffed I caught this picture – its a proud moment to see her signing. I am no less proud than when I heard Ava using her first words. Seren is communicating in her own way and I am pleased as punch!!

Bournemouth was lovely yesterday – Ava and Seren loved the birthday party and afterwards we got to go to the beach. I can’t believe that Ava got to run around in the sea on the 1st October!! Crazy weather we are having. While Ava enjoyed the sea, Seren enjoyed eating the sand… Seren wasn’t keen on having her feet dipped in the water – it was rather cold, so she sat out while Matt and Ava spent some time splashing around.

It’s been a quick week this week. I think having children puts life on fast forward. I have no idea where the time goes and I feel as though my feet don’t touch the ground. I love my life though; I feel so very lucky to be alive and have these wonderful children. In true Brit style, we are having a family BBQ this afternoon… we are clinging to the last of this glorious weather with both hands and it will be nice to catch up with my brother, sister-in-law, my 2 nieces and my parents.

About MamaK

Mother, wife, general dogsbody, but I wouldn't have it any other way!! My three girls are the light of my life - Ava (Mar '08) is kind, clever and a joy to parent. She is destined to be on the stage (drama queen!!). Seren (Jun '10) is my beautiful little munchkin - officially diagnosed with Down's syndrome minutes after she was born, but we had an inidcation through a *high risk* Triple Test that she might have DS (we refused the amnio). Baby Violet was born in April 2012 and is learning to survive the bone crunchingly enthusiastic cuddles she gets from her older sisters... My wonderful husband Matt is a fantastic dad - our house is full of love and laughter!